Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. LTE provides mobile broadband connectivity to user equipment (UE) within the LTE network at higher data rates than previous generation wireless networks. For example, the air interface for LTE, referred to as evolved universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), utilizes multi-antenna and multi-user coding techniques to achieve downlink data rates of hundreds of megabits per second (Mbps) and uplink data rates of tens of Mbps.
Tunneling is a mechanism used to encapsulate a foreign payload protocol across an LTE network that normally does not support the foreign payload protocol. A tunneling protocol allows a network system to carry a foreign payload protocol, for example, carrying a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol (GTP) on User Datagram Protocol (UDP)/Internet Protocol (IP) versus Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP, a Mobile IP (MIP), or Proxy Mobile IP (PMIP). Packets enter a tunnel at one end and exit the tunnel at the other end.
A conventional network system captures data from user equipment (UE) of a subscriber on a tunneled network using a passive probing node. The passive probing node absorbs and decodes, and monitors data links that carry data streams in a service provider network. However, the passive probe solution is costly and operationally difficult to manage in a live network because it requires many probes and links to monitor network traffic passing through the passive probe.